COURTESY HANA CULTURAL CENTER
The Hana Cultural Center was established to preserve object s and practices involved in daily life in ancient Hana.

A visit to Hana can be a life-changing experience

Spend a few days in Hana and you'll discover what's really important in life: listening to the music of falling rain, watching mists swirl around verdant hills, sniffing a bouquet of fragrant ginger, nibbling a sweet guava that you found growing wild along the road.

» Hoolaulea: Enjoy Hawaiian games, taro exhibits, food booths, historical photo displays and music and dance presentations, including the debut of a Tahitian dance troupe comprising Hana residents. There will also be sales and demonstrations of arts and crafts, tours of the Kauhale O Hana complex and a silent auction with proceeds to fund the center's children's programs from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Aug. 2. Admission is free.

Hana soothes. Hana calms. Hana heals. Many describe this quiet hamlet on the lush east coast of Maui as heaven, a place where the people are as gentle as the breezes and the beauty of the land is more astounding than anything man has created of concrete, steel and glass.

From the moment he first set foot in Hana, Ward Mardfin knew he had found home. As a 17-year-old high school student living in Darien, Conn., he spent an idyllic summer there in 1961 with his best friend, John Woodbridge.

"John's father was the comptroller for Pan American World Airways," recalled Mardfin. "One of his business associates was Hana landowner Sam Pryor, who was also a Pan Am executive. Sam made a Jeep and a ranch house in Kipahulu, 12 miles from Hana town, available to John for the entire summer, so I tagged along.

"For me, from then on, there was never any other consideration than to eventually settle in Hana," Mardfin said. "Hana no ka oi (Hana is the best)!"

Over the next 40 years, Mardfin served in the U.S. Army, got married, earned a Ph.D. degree in economics and established a career as a professor of economics at West Oahu College (now University of Hawaii-West Oahu) and Hawaii Loa College (now Hawaii Pacific University). Although he lived and worked on Oahu from 1968 to 2001, he celebrated every New Year's holiday in Hana during that span, except 1988 and 1992 when he was teaching abroad.

COURTESY HANA CULTURAL CENTER
The Hana Cultural Center was established to preserve object s and practices involved in daily life in ancient Hana.

MARDFIN AND HIS wife, Jean, moved to Hana permanently in 2001. Now retired, he serves as the treasurer and a member of the board of trustees for the Hana Cultural Center, which began in the early 1970s as a grass-roots effort to "aid, assist and encourage in the research, discovery and preservation of historical and cultural items, places and information concerning the district of Hana, Maui, Hawaii for the benefit of both the indigenous people and tourists alike."

According to Mardfin, the primary mover and shaker behind the cultural center was Muriel "Babes" Hanchett, wife of John Hanchett, who was then the manager of Hana Ranch and Hotel Hana-Maui.

"During the 1970s there was a groundswell of interest in things Hawaiian," said Mardfin. "It inspired a group of Hana residents led by Babes, who had been born and raised in Hana, to meet regularly with others who shared an interest in collecting and preserving historical information and artifacts of the area."

Thus the Hana Cultural Center was born. The only resource of its kind in East Maui, it was incorporated on Sept. 30, 1971, and received tax exemption as a nonprofit organization on April 23, 1973. In 1987 the center acquired a long-term lease on Maui County property on which Hana's courthouse and jail had been constructed in 1871.

The courthouse was refurbished in 1989, and a judge presides over nonjury cases there on the first Tuesday of every month. The jail's three small cells were renovated in 1997. Both structures are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

COURTESY HANA CULTURAL CENTER
The Hana Cultural Center was established to preserve object s and practices involved in daily life in ancient Hana.

Opened in 1983, Hale Waiwai O Hana (Hana's House of Treasures) is the center's 1,200-square-foot museum and gift shop. On display in the museum are artifacts that depict everyday life in Hana from ancient to modern times, including poi boards, fishhooks, coconut graters, pieces of tapa and selections from an archive of more than 5,000 photos and records dating from the late 1800s through the 1900s.

Special exhibits focus on "Storied Places of East Maui," "Hana's Warrior Culture," the famed voyaging canoe Hokule'a and "Faces of Hana," some 240 black-and-white portraits of Hana residents.

"In my mind the center's most important holdings are those pictures," said Mardfin. "Longtime resident Leslie Eade, a retired businessman, took, developed and printed them during the late 1960s."

Eade's wife, Coila, served as the center's unpaid executive director for three decades. Until she retired a few years ago, she was its most devoted supporter.

"Virtually all of the center's photos and artifacts were donated: a stone adz here, a Hawaiian quilt there, essentially bits and pieces of history from people responding to Coila's requests for contributions," said Mardfin. Coila "did everything from making acquisitions and raising funds to generating publicity and overseeing expansion projects."

One of those projects was Kauhale O Hana, a replica of an ancient Hawaiian chief's living compound, which opened in 1996. It encompasses four thatched structures: Hale Mua (men's meetinghouse), Hale Noa (sleeping house), Hale Imu (cooking house) and Hale Waa (canoe house). Docents offer tours of the site free of charge.

The center's first Hoolaulea (celebration) was held in conjunction with the dedication of Kauhale O Hana. This year's event, set for Aug. 2 (see box), marks the museum's 25th anniversary.

Themed "Na Keiki O Hana (The Children of Hana)," the hoolaulea underscores the center's commitment to promote, preserve and perpetuate the history and culture of the Hana district.

"Kupuna (elders) will spend time with moopuna (grandchildren) to share stories," said Mardfin. "In that way the younger generation will come to understand and appreciate everything that makes Hana special and will be encouraged to keep it that way."

Cheryl Chee Tsutsumi is a Honolulu-based free-lance writer and Society of American Travel Writers award winner.